Discussion board posts are often assigned as a convenient way for students to share ideas about in-class materials; however, they are lazy, thoughtless, and add nothing insightful to classes or for students.
Professors who teach in-person classes should consider holding in person discussions instead, so that students can directly communicate with one another.
Students are typically given the same instructions from their professors in order to receive credit for discussion board post assignments, which are to answer the prompt, meet a certain word count and respond to a certain number of classmates.
Professors often create simple prompts for these discussion board posts, leading to uncreative and nearly identical responses from students.
Although discussion board posts are intended to spark conversations between classmates, students only respond to the number of people they need to get credit for the assignment.
After students originally make their posts, they do not bother responding back to those who leave replies.
Additionally, discussion board posts are rarely, if ever, talked about in class.
This ultimately defeats the purpose of the assignment, which is to encourage students to engage with their peers and express their thoughts.
The monotonous and basic nature of discussion board assignments leave little room for students to develop their ideas or learn something new.
This is a disservice to students seeking a higher education.
Professors should not be creating assignments that feel like thoughtless busy work, and students should not feel forced to engage with their peers.
Assignments should be used to help college students improve their knowledge and better their understanding of in-class materials.
Without the barriers of online anonymity, students will have a more personalized approach to developing their ideas which in turn can lead to more engagement between classmates.
Professors will also have the opportunity to expand the discussion beyond a simple prompt.
Turning discussion board posts into in-class conversations will benefit both students and instructors in the long run.
It is time for professors who teach in-person classes to stop relying on discussion board posts and start allowing students’ education to flourish.